I've done some searching and haven't really found much information on the subwoofer used in the Sport Wagon. The wagon, and probably the 5 door as well, does the subwoofer in the spare tire trick. While I find the rest of the audio package "good enough" the subwoofer is a joke. I honestly challenge that it adds anything. Unfortunately my *only* options are to replace the speaker inside the unit or use a spare tire style sub. I say only because, well, it's a Wagon, one of the key reasons for getting it was because of space. Taking up that space with a subwoofer would defeat the purpose.

Best thing I think you could probably do is to either build a custom enclosure for a sub to fit in the spare tire well, or just get an 8" sub that doesn't require a very big box.

I replaced the sub in the sedan with an Image Dynamics ID8 v3 and it will do fine with a .24 cu ft box (that number includes the space that would normally be displaced by the sub, so the actual small box volume is .2 cu ft.

Thats not a big box at all and you could probably make it fit somewhere. If you know how to work with fiberglass your going to have a better chance of making it fit. In any event if you swap the Bose sub for a new sub your still going to need and aftermarket amp as well and you will need to account for that no matter what you decide.

I'm not much of a fiberglass wizard so I'd like to go that route only if I can find no other option. I already have an amp from my previous car that happily drove a single 12" sub and would easily fit under the driver seat.

Do you think it's worth trying to simply replace the subwoofer already in the enclosure? I'm not sure if it's the subwoofer itself or the amp that sucks so maybe that is a pointless way to go.

Hmmm, could someone provide a picture of the sub unit in the 5-door and the Sport Wagon? Here are the pics of the Bose sub/amp in the sedan, is it similar?

You can see that the Bose design is odd because the magnet and motor structure is actually ABOVE the cone. This is an unconventional unit to say the least. The next thing you will notice is how small the magnet and motor is for a 9" unit. That is the main reason we do not get alot of power out of it. Furthermore, you can see that the amp under the sub is small as well, even at 2 ohms it does not likely put out a good deal of power. Just an FYI for people who don't do this stuff everyday, most, if not practically all, aftermarket subs use a design with the cone and spider above the motor structure, not below it.

Your picture only shows the top casing, or whatever that might be. Could be the amp, knowing these BOSE fools. Anyway, try to get in there and take a better shot for us to look at. Remove the tire, etc.

hmmm can you see if you can unbolt the top of the Bose box and take a picture. It looks like they MAY use the same woofer or a slightly smaller one but I cannot be sure yet because we can't see the whole unit. If that is the case you may be able to get an 8" woofer to fit in the original spot but you're still going to not have as good of bass as you would having it out of the tire well, but it would be better than stock. If the woofer is smaller you may be looking at a 6"-6.75 woofer. Try to get the sub out of its container for us, that would really help us in trying determine your options, since space is a consideration. :)

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